Bisht, P.S.Joshi, Shubham2019-01-282019-01-282018-06http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810092651Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) belonging to family Asteraceae is one of the essential oil producing medicinal plant. Dry flowers of chamomile are mainly used for essential oil extraction. However, the production of dry flowers remains low due to lack of appropriate agronomic practices. The aim of present experiment was to study the “Effect of Organic Mulching and Spacing on Growth and Yield of Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) cv. CIM Sammohak”. This experiment was carried out at Medicinal Plant Research and Development Centre, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India, during November 2017 to April 2018. The experimental design was Split Plot Design with three replications. There were four types of mulches; no mulch, rice straw, black gram straw and barnyard millet straw with three spacing; 30×30 cm, 30×20 cm and 30×10 cm. Mulches were assigned to main plots and spacing was allotted to sub plots. The organic mulching rate of application was 5 ton ha−1 and this was applied in the field after transplanting. Different vegetative, floral, oil, soil and weed parameters were analyzed. Flowers were picked and counted after two successive florescence. The analyzed results showed that, organic mulch and spacing had significant effect on different parameters. Interaction results showed that, highest dry flower yield was recorded under Rice straw with 30×10 cm spacing (1,304.44 kg/ha) and maximum essential oil was recorded under Barnyard millet straw with 30×10 cm plant spacing (6.74 kg/ha). Mulch also increased the soil moisture, decreased soil surface temperature and suppressed weeds for better growth of the crop.ennullThesis